16 months in: taking on Gmail

"We wanted to build a service that was personal and designed for modern devices, with a clean user experience and smart and powerful tools that let our customers get things done faster," wrote Sunagawa.

This reflects Microsoft's often-used "entertainment and productivity" mantra and is one of the many reasons it needed to rebrand the email service from Hotmail to Outlook.com a year ago.

Today's Outlook import tool is another step in the right direction, though one that Microsoft should've had ready closer to 16 months ago in time for Outlook.com's launch.

Still, Sunagawa cited a recent Ipsos Public Affairs study that indicates one in four people would switch email providers if it was easier to do so, suggesting there's no time like the present for Microsoft to steal Gmail users.